Narrow, maze-like streets between four and six feet wide crisscross the tiny island of N’Gor. Markus and I ran, circling the island perhaps two or three times getting lost and found at every intersection before rounding random corners to find a view of the ocean. Well manicured front doors and neatly swept paths give way to piles of trash and back again. In the grey shell of an unfinished building furnished only with brightly colored paintings for sale.
Breakfast was what we ate the night before -spaghetti- with eggs added. Today’s job was to see our sponsor, IAMGOLD (a gold mining company and one of our sponsors) and buy more food and hunt down a wireless stick for more reliable Internet vs. the one we can poach if we hold our computers on the edge of the second story balcony.Just beyond the beach back on the mainland is the village of N’Gor. Its a mix of shacks and new construction. Small markets and hovels with men and women cooking in small ash-filled braziers. The occasional beat up taxi and fancy SUV cruise by.
We were going to IAMGOLD for complementary malaria testing kits from Lauren and a security briefing from James. The kits were simple, and the conclusion of the briefing was that Dakar is safe, but big city rules apply.
We had lunch, followed shortly by another as Markus is on a quest to gain weight. Well satiated we went to a very modern grocery store.
Everything was comparatively expensive and the fish display had a whole four foot Dorado. I watched our food while Pat and Markus got some vegetables from a woman on the side of the road. We took a taxi back to the beach, waited for a boat, met and made friends with Martin from US AID. He was heading out to the island to swim on the island’s cleaner waters and meet a friend. We quickly put what needed to stay cold in the fridge and went for a surf.